The Heroes of Olympus - Steampunk Scavengers
by mababwion
Summary: The crew of the Argo II are just your regular rough and tumble scavengers - doing any job that gets them the cash to keep freelancing - when a common enemy of the main fleet Half Blood and the government run fleet Romana rises, it's up to them to settle their differences and put the Giants back where they came from.
1. 1 - A New Job

**HEROES OF OLYMPUS – STEAMPUNK SCAVENGERS**

**CHAPTER 1**

The bar was typical standard. Filled with thugs, dames, and potential clients. The small tag team sat lonely in the corner, watching from a distance for their next customer. They were playing a game of cards, courtesy of the bar keep, who liked to have his guests entertained and lent a welcome hand to those who sought work.

One lady in particular, wearing a red beaded dress and large earrings, slipped towards the table. She sat herself down comfortably, enjoying the game.

"Those are some pretty high stakes," she said. "You sure you can keep up?"

"Ain't no problem," one of the men said. "You just got to make sure you don't bet too high. This one -" he pointed to the woman. "Can really slip the carpet under your feet if you're not careful, you get what I'm saying."

The lady laughed. "I heard you're all about being careful, Captain. That's why I've come to you."

"You got something you'd like done?"

"Not me personally. My employer has some cargo he needs to get shipped west. Under the table."

"There are monsters down there. You know that, right miss?" The captain took a sip of his drink. "Won't be doing nothing without a good price on it."

The lady slipped a piece of paper towards him. He picked it up. "Would that be enough?"

He showed the slip of paper to his other two companions. They nodded. The captain grinned at her. "That would do nicely."

"Excellent," she said and got up to leave. "The meet up and the time are also printed on there. I hope to see you again soon." She flashed the captain a smile, who returned it graciously, and she left blushing.

Once she was gone, Annabeth smacked Percy across the head. "What was that for?"

"What?"

"The accent! The double negatives! Flirting your way with the secretary!"

Percy looked hurt. "You don't like it? I thought it made me sound tough."

"You sounded like an idiot," Frank said.

"Sounding like an idiot is half the point," Percy countered. "Because tough people don't need to sound smart."

"Well that's too bad you aren't smart, then." Annabeth said and placed her full deck on the table. "Because I win."

Percy sighed and reached into his vest pocket. Pulling out the money, he stuck his tongue out at Annabeth who made a similarly childish face back at him.

They packed up quickly to go after that. They thanked the bar tender, who waved at them as they exited. They stopped a carriage outside the bar, and started making their way back down to the docks.

The city was impressive, but not something they hadn't seen a hundred times before. The cobblestone roads and street vendors were all the same. Flashing advertisements and screaming people, all rushing with someplace to be, someone else to yell at. It would have been a nicer looking place had the clouds not shrouded the sky and were pouring rain down on them. But the weather all over the place had been weird the past couple of days and no one knew quite what to make of it.

"With the weather being all topsy-turvy all the time," Percy said as he glared at the sky. "It won't be too good for sailing."

"We'll just have to be careful," Annabeth said. But she too looked slightly concerned. "Now that we got a job, we need to make sure it gets done."

The ship hung in midair at the docks, held down by industrial cord. It was large, and long. Quite magnificent and a pinnacle in modern technology. Made of bronze and timber, it caught the city lights' glow and seemed almost on fire. Of course, knowing Leo – the mechanic – that probably wouldn't be too far of an assumption. The Argo was proud and intimidating, partly due to the fact that it had a giant metal dragon attached as a masthead and spread itself elegantly throughout the ship's exterior. The steps reached down as they approached and they climbed up into the ship.

As soon as they entered, they were bombarded by loud voices.

"Well then if _you_ didn't put it there, and _I _didn't put it there, then who did?!"

"There are nine other people on this stupid boat, you take a pick!"

"'_Stupid boat_'?! Say that again! I'll have you know that this _'stupid boat'_ can carry 10 000x what _you_ can, and still have room for another kitchen! The power conducted alone would be enough to power an entire city and -"

Another voice joined the squabbling pair. "Oh, be quiet! The both of you! You're giving us all headaches!"

"I'll tell you what gives me a headache -"

Frank, Annabeth and Percy bolted into the main living quarters. The sight that greeted them was Nico and Leo grabbing at each other, desperately trying to land a punch, with Will holding the two of them back. Hazel stood nearby, a look saying that she was thinking of some pretty disfiguring hexes. There was a plate of half eaten brownies on the table which Annabeth figured was the cause for the disagreement.

"Guys! Stop it!" she yelled. The pair broke up and shrugged off to opposite sides of the room. "Honestly! You would think the way you were acting, you were all children!"

"But he -" Leo started but was cut off immediately by Annabeth. "I don't want to hear it. Someone put the brownies back in the fridge. We'll just have to make more later."

"Bummer," Percy said. "Hazel, I need to talk to you. Everyone else, try to get the ship back in living conditions. We might be picking up another passenger."

"Another passenger?" Will asked. "What for?"

"Friend of mine has a favor to ask," Percy said. "Plus, it wouldn't hurt to reel in some extra cash."

"So we can get new couplings, right?" Leo pleaded with him eagerly.

"No, man," Will said. "We need more medical supplies. I'm running low on nectar and disinfectant."

"We'll find out what to do with the money later," Annabeth ordered. "Right now, everyone needs to help clean up."

Grudgingly, the crew began to put things back in order. The place wasn't that bad, just full of dirty dishes, random objects from pillages and lots of half eaten foods. The corridors of the ship were packed with boxes of artifacts that needed new homes and every room had at least one strange animal living in it. How they had managed to live in the ship for the past few weeks was a mystery. But Hazel had been having trouble with her magic lately, and hadn't had time to order about the cleaning drones – who were also in a state of disrepair that hadn't been looked at yet because Leo had been busy with the engine.

Frank left Annabeth and Percy to go help Hazel lift a table back on its four legs, so the captain and his first mate left the room to go up to the deck.

Piper and Jason smiled at them when they arrived. "Any trouble with the locals?" Jason asked.

"Why would you think that?" said Percy.

"From your repertoire, maybe" Piper laughed. "Any town we go to always ends up with us getting in a fight."

"Well, we haven't left yet. So I guess we can still meet our quota."

Jason stood up straighter, interested. "We made a contact?"

"Open up your maps, Grace," Percy said and pulled the piece of paper out from his vest. "We got ourselves a job."


	2. 2 - Some New Cargo

**CHAPTER 2**

"Percy!" Grover called. The satyr – half man, half goat – waved at the team consisting of Percy, Annabeth, Frank and Nico, from across the clearing. He was very fast, and it only took a moment for him to reach them and give them all a big hug.

Satyrs were the world's running merchants. Needed anything delivered, the best bet was to get a satyr to find the mode of transport. They were big softies for tall-tales and romance novels, but give them any inclination that you would trespass on their property and all kinds of nature magic and misfortune would befall.

"It's good to see you again, man!" Percy said and clapped Grover on the shoulder. "You seriously need to call more often, you know how boring it gets on the road sometimes."

Grover laughed. "You got it. Just don't want to call at a bad time," he glanced at Annabeth. "Never know what kind of trouble you guys get into."

"You have to admit," Percy said. "You miss it, right? The danger, the monsters fights..."

Grover waved a hand. "I'll stick to my business, thanks. Juniper would probably kill me if I went back in the field anyway."

Annabeth smiled. "I hope she's doing okay. Tell her I say 'hi'?"

"Absolutely. She'll be happy to hear from you guys."

"You said you had a job for us, right?" Frank inquired. He wanted to get the pleasantries out of the way. They were pretty exposed here, and nothing good would happen if they were caught.

"Yes, yes of course," Grover said. "My men are loading up the cargo right now. It's a bunch of ancient relics. Museum stuff. Weapons, pottery, tablets and whatever."

"How ancient?" Annabeth asked. Any chance to get new information, she was excited for it.

"Pretty old, I'd say. Looking at it, I would have guessed about 10 000 years? Back when they said gods roamed the world and stuff. But Hazel can probably check. Not that I would advise it. The buyer says that he doesn't want anything broken. Everything is still more or less intact, but there's not much you can do about a pot that's been broken for a millennial."

"Why does he want it transported with such secrecy?" Frank questioned.

Grover shrugged. "Some of the stuff's pretty valuable. Some people say might even still be some residual ancient magic mumbo-jumbo still attached to it. There's a lot of people who would like to get their hands on that kind of power. But everything has to be shipped to the Grand Museum at Polyphemus."

Nico scowled. "Polyphemus is a long way away. Almost two months. We would have to seriously stack up on provisions for a trip that long."

Percy tried to give Nico what he hoped was a reassuring look. "We'll stock up at the next town over. I don't like being here any more than you do."

They loaded up the ship as quickly as they could. But there were a lot of crates, and were bound to get noticed. The Argo's proximity alarm went off, and most of the satyrs took a run for it, leaving half of their boxes still on their way to the cargo hold.

Dozens of telekhines rose up from the ground around them. Their snarling, dog like faces were as ugly as Percy remembered them. One telekhine, older and bigger than the rest of them, stood up on its hind legs and barked, "Our kind made most of those artifacts! Hand them over!"

"How are you even on land, right now?" Percy demanded. The cold air from the city had disappeared and had been replaced by the scorching heat of the valley. The telekhines were half dog, half fish and made no sense how they could be outside in these conditions.

The boss telekhine just growled and launched himself towards Percy. He sidestepped and kicked the dog-fish in the rear and it went stumbling. Just as it turned around, Percy pulled out a pen and raised it threateningly towards him.

"I wouldn't take another step towards those crates if I were you," Percy grinned.

"Is that supposed to be scary?"

"Well, I _am_ holding a pen in your face, the very least you could do was listen to me for a moment."

Nobody said telekhines were smart. The second the telekhine rushed forward, a shot was fired and struck it right in the chest and it disintegrated. It fell at Percy's feet with a thump. Percy looked over to Frank, who was already re-loading his cross-bow. Annabeth had her mauser model out and shooting and Nico and Hazel stood back to back warding off monsters with their swords. Grover was even helping out, by staying close to the cargo and warding off attackers with threats to play some music.

However, there were still too many of them, and the satyrs were trying desperately to keep going with the cargo. The telekhines raced forward but were fended off by Frank who took out a short rod from his a strap on his side, whirled it around and it extended into a long spear. He swept the telekhines out from under their feet and stabbed one in the heart.

"Festus?" Percy called on his communicator. "We got a little skirmish happening here, mind lending a hand?"

They needed to get out of there _now. _Notwithstanding the giant bronze warship that was destined to be noticed, they now had an all out brawl happening just below. The sounds were sure to attract the authorities who would spot the illegal transport ship and no doubt ring the entire crew for questioning and discipline.

A telekhine pounced on Percy's back and he fell forwards onto the ground. The claws dug into his side and he twisted. Percy uncapped the pen and mid-swing, the pen extended into a bronze sword, slicing the monster in half and scattering it into dust.

Just when another telekhine rushed forwards to attack, a high powered blast of energy shot it away. The Argo's remaining crew had arrived on deck and were using the loaded guns and energy canons to blast away the remaining enemies.

Just as when the last of the crates was being loaded and satyrs were abandoning the fight, Percy remembered something important. "So where's the new passenger you haven't told anything me about?" Percy asked Grover over an exploding cloud of monster dust.

"Oh, she's in one of the boxes," Grover answered. "Don't worry it was labeled 'fragile' so it shouldn't be too hard to find."

"Grover," Annabeth called as she retreated back into the hold of the ship. "They're all marked 'fragile!"

Percy and Grover exchanged a look that said, '_whoops'. _

Slotting that problem away for later, Percy followed the rest of his crew back up onto the ship. "Get us out of here, Jason!"

The ship closed up and the engines started, sending rumblings and vibrations throughout. Back on the ground, Grover called out to them from his transport pod, "Take care, fellas! Don't break any magic pots that will unleash the world's worst nightmares on you!"

Will fired the last shot as the ship rose higher and higher into the sky. The bronze lit up and turned gold, and the sails unfurled to catch the sunlight brought energy. With a final wave, the Argo blasted off in the direction of the ocean, carrying new artifacts, a new member of the crew, and the promise of a good pay.

Leo rubbed his hands together. "So which box do we look in first?"


	3. 3 - The Argo's History

**CHAPTER 3**

Unfortunately, the big send off into the sunset had to be postponed. Jason realized that they still had to go back into a town and get supplies for the long journey ahead. As the ship turned itself back towards mainland, the crew dug through the crates, trying to find the new passenger.

Frank grumbled as he tore open another lid, only to find it empty save for some more ancient plates. "Hazel, can't you just... I don't know, _sense_ which box they're in?"

"Not all the crates are full of precious things," she answered. "I can't sense what's in them if they're nothing of value."

Nico groaned, exasperated. "Honestly, why anyone would even _want_ to have a plate somebody else died on is beyond me."

Leo held up a particular magnificent piece of pottery and eyed it critically. "People died on this?"

"Not that one," Nico said. "But the one on your left, most certainly."

"Shouldn't they be calling for help?" Percy closed another crate. "I mean, it must not be very comfortable, sitting in a box for too long."

A loud _bang! _and an "Ow!" alerted the rest of the crew to where Leo stood rubbing his forehead, and a woman was clumsily trying to get out of the box he had just opened.

"Found 'em," Leo said.

She wore a short, white dress with a v-shaped neckline, leggings, tall boots, and around her waist she tied a crimson sash. She also had a crystal necklace and a strange metal bracelet on her wrist. Her caramel hair was braided over her shoulder and she had dark, almond eyes.

"Calypso," Percy gaped.

Annabeth gave Calypso a once over. "You know her?"

Calypso looked nervous, "Grover did not tell you I was the passenger?"

"No," Percy said, still wide eyed. "He conveniently left that part out."

Percy and Calypso stared at each other a while longer, everyone else feeling pretty awkward, but then Percy seemed to have shaken himself out of his daze and smiled. Reaching forward, he pulled Calypso into a hug. "It's good to see you again," he said sincerely and Calypso leaned into the embrace happily.

Everyone else took this as the que to introduce themselves. It was a little overwhelming, and Calypso found herself very nervous to be the center of all the attention. Suddenly, an alarm started going off and everyone started.

"What was that?" Percy asked.

Everyone looked at Leo. He blinked back at them then started to awkwardly make his way over to the intercom.

"Festus! Hey buddy, what's going on?"

A long series of angry sounding clicks, creaks and groans followed through. Leo nodded to each of them, looking more sheepish by the second. He turned to Calypso.

"Hey, _floricita._ Festus says 'Hi'."

As Nico slapped Leo on the head, Jason came running in to the cargo hold.

"Percy, the nearest town is Kronos. Do we want to land there?" Jason inquired.

Percy's expression darkened and he stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Can we not?"

"Persephone would be the next option, but it's a little farther away."

"We're going there, then," Annabeth said. "Let's not put step any foot in Kronos if we can. We can spare a few more hours." She turned to the group. Everyone stiffened from her gaze, because they knew that it meant chore time.

She started listing off duties. The ship was still a mess and needed to be in proper order before they set off, _again_. Nico, Leo, and Will were given the deck. Percy, Jason, Frank and Annabeth had the lower levels and Calypso, Hazel and Piper would start inventorying food and collectables to be bought and paid for at the next landing.

"Sorry to get you working so fast," Piper said. "But this ship doesn't run itself. Well, it kind of does. Actually yes, it runs itself but it certainly doesn't keep itself maintained."

"It's not a problem," Calypso shrugged. "I'm happy to be busy."

They put the crates back in order and tied them down. The empty crate that Calypso had popped out of would now serve as the "To Be Sold" bin, and another empty crate, courtesy of Grover and his fantastical planning would be the garbage.

As they started sorting through the fridge and cupboards, throwing out expired and old food, Piper glanced sideways at Calypso and said, "So... you know Percy?"

It was a question they had all been dying to ask. Hazel looked up from where she was working and stared at Calypso, trying to gauge her reaction.

She smiled sadly. "Yes, I met him when he was a prisoner during the war. I helped him escape."

"That was you? That's amazing!" Piper exclaimed.

"Yeah, but," Calypso's eyebrows scrunched together. "It's been years since then, and I don't know what happened afterward. I wasn't even sure this was his ship until Grover told me who I was being shipped off to."

"Ooh, so you need the back stories," Piper smiled.

As they worked, Piper and Hazel talked. They moved swiftly through the kitchen and the main living quarters, working their way through the sleeping cabins and hallways – picking scrap, garbage and artifacts along the way to be sorted.

"Percy and Annabeth bought the ship together. After the war, Percy was commemorated for his actions and was promoted to Captain. In my opinion he should have been made Commander, but whatever. You know that they both served in the war together. Those two have been friends since they were young. I don't think even they remember a time when they weren't together. Well, not _together _together. That happened once the war was finished, I think. Idiots finally got married too."

"Married?" Calypso gasped. "Legally?"

"Yeah," Piper nodded. "Got the papers and everything. Gotta say though, they chose a heck of a spot to settle down in. Spending their time doing odd jobs and sailing around? Weird way to spend the married life, in my opinion."

"Pretty much everyone on the ship served in the war," Hazel added. "Like Leo was one of the top engineers, leading the production of weapons and everything. Honestly, I think he would have been head of everything if the main guy wasn't such a stuck-up. Sorry, that was rude. He just wasn't very nice and had a lot of power.

"Leo pretty much built the ship. The thing was in pretty bad dis-repair when Percy and Annabeth bought it, but I think they saw the potential it could have. It took a while, but he finally got it running. Festus – that's the dragon – he runs the ship and Leo got him working."

"How'd he get so good at machines?"

"No one really knows," Piper said. "I don't think even _he _knows. He just has a gift for it, really. He was orphaned when he was really young and ran away a lot of times. He only got in such a good position in engineering because some guy – I think he said his name was Hedge – took him into his shop as a sort of – I don't want to say 'apprentice', because they never taught him – but once they realized how good he was with machines, he just shot up."

"That's pretty lucky," said Calypso.

Piper shrugged. "A lot of us are. I don't think we would have survived as long as we have anyway. For example, when you look at me, what do you think?"

Calypso looked at Piper up and down. She was very pretty, even without trying, and held herself with the kind of air of someone used to high society. "Rich background?"

"One of the wealthiest," Piper grimaced. "My father is Tristan McLean. But I couldn't live in that life. All the dresses, the proper etiquette, the snotty people... ugh. Unbearable. It didn't help that I didn't even know who my mother was, I was already shunned. I wasn't getting any attention from my father, so I decided to leave. I found Hazel through a vision in a special knife – weird, I know – and we made our way to the Argo together."

Calypso turned to Hazel. "You know magic though, right?"

She shrugged. "My mother taught me. I specialize in illusions though. I've been brought up in the life of magic, just seem to have a thing for it. Unfortunately after some incidents, and my mother passing away, my hometown exiled me. I had been traveling on my own with my step brother for a couple of years, then he left, and I found Piper.

"Nico is my step brother, but you wouldn't be able to tell. He and I are completely different from each other. But he's sweet. He's been dealt a hard life. His other sister, Bianca, died in the war. She served with Percy but didn't make it of the Junkyard Battle.

"Nico blamed Percy for a long time for his sisters death, but I think after time and healing, they both came to terms with it. They've both been through a lot together, especially after Nico joined the army and became Percy's subordinate.

"The two of them together," Hazel said, awed. "That's another unstoppable team, right there."

"Another unstoppable team?" Calypso asked, confused.

"Oh man," Piper sighed – and Calypso could tell – with a bit of exasperation. "I think that if Jason loved me half as much as he loved Percy, we'd probably be married by now. He's the pilot, and best at navigation, but the two of them together in a fight..." she whistled. "It's pretty amazing. And that's coming from me."

"Jason used to lead a ship for the _Romana_," Hazel explained. "They're the most strict and experienced fleet apart from the _Half-Bloods, _so it's only natural that he'd be so good at fighting. But Their ongoing rivalry challenged Jason's morals when the battles got too rough, so he decided to skip out and joined the Argo a little while later."

"You're talking about me?" Jason appeared beside them and smiled, wrapping an arm around Piper and kissed her on the forehead.

Piper's eyebrows went up. "Aren't you supposed to be cleaning below?"

"Mom and dad got into a fight," Jason grimaced. "Frank and I are taking a break until they calm down." He sat down next to Hazel and Calypso and took out a worn book from the pile. "I hope you guys have found good stuff for us to sell. We're really gonna need the money. Leo wasn't lying when he said we needed new couplings. Also, I don't know about you, but I prefer it if the designated medical professional has proper supplies."

"That would be Will," Piper explained. "He's basically the embodiment of sunshine itself."

Jason put the book into the 'To Be Sold' bin and reached for another. "From all of us, he probably has the easiest beginning. Really nice family and home, but he left when they expected too much from him and were trying to run his life. They wanted him to become this top notch doctor and focus solely on work, but, Will's a free spirit. He'll do what he wants to do. You know, he's probably one of the best educated on this ship, other than Annabeth. Also plays like, fifteen different instruments. So unfair, I can hardly play a cow bell."

"You still have other endearing qualities," Piper wrapped her arms around Jason's shoulders and squeezed. "Like your... fantastic eyesight."

Jason rolled his eyes,"Yeah, no."

"And the last one?" Calypso was still trying to process all the information she was being given, but she knew they were missing a person. "The giant guy. Frank, is he called?"

Hazel blushed. "He may be a bit intimidating, but he's such a puppy once you get to know him."

"He looks oriental."

"He is, but his family comes from the north. His mom was a captain in the war, but died in action saving her squadron."

"Frank has a curse, though," Jason said, and he looked very sad talking about it. "He joined the Argo in his search to find a cure. We've been trying to find one, but so far we got nothing. The thing about him is that he's kind of too powerful. And so if he over exerts himself, he might quite literally burn up."

"That's why he relies more on his weapons in combat," Hazel picked up the now full box of stuff and Jason and Piper followed with the other boxes. "He's quite possibly the biggest expert on weapons there are, to be honest."

"That's amazing," Calypso sighed. Her head was still swimming with all the facts given, but she already felt like she could probably like it here. The people were nice, and interesting – not at all like what she had expected when she first signed up to be part of this witness protection program of sorts.

Piper wrapped an arm around Calypso's shoulders and grinned. "You get to tell us your story at dinner though, Cal. Can't wait to hear it."


End file.
